Tkpenalty's X1950~HD4k Clubhouse

[binormalkilla]

Yea I'd have to agree, the VF900Cu is a great cooler. I bought one for my Sapphire (before RMA) and it lowered the temps drastically. However, I didn't have heatsinks for the VRMs so I just RMAd them both for my card. HIS

[DOM]

@technicks :laugh: cant wait for his reply

But what kind of load temps do you get with yours and @ what speeds

[tkpenalty]

You don't know what you are talking about. I have both coolers and the VF900 is better then the Arctic X2. You just like Arctic more then Zalman because you have the cooler.
Don't say it's crap. Have you used the Zalman yourself?
The Arctic cooler revs up my motherboard temp by 5 degrees because of the idiotic hot air exhaust. Ok maybe they have the same cooling capacity but i would rather not have the hot air blown into my mobo.
The Zalman is a great cooler and maybe better then the X2.

Btw. This looks a lot more offensive then it was meant.;):p

*Looks at what dom posted*

OMFG VF900CU SUCKS BALLZ ACCELEROX2 RULES TEH WALRD:laugh:

They perform similar but you gotta realise that the AcceleroX2 is two times more expensive...

With a proper intake (without bezel; normal case situation since this bezel barely lets any air in) and a "low ambient temps like how it is over there", i get 33*C Idle, and around 45*C load... normally? 36*C Idle, 48*C load.

Frankly technicks, the VF900CU is great okay? Except its not that great when you consider it performs badly on load on the X1950XT, there isnt a DEFINITE COOLING POWER, like most of you think...VF900 wasnt really designed for such heat loads anyway, it does great but I wouldnt be putting my money on it. If you have proper ventilation i would wonder why you would complain about the acceleroX2, moreover you have the antec 900 and grilled slot covers... the antec 900's intakes are beasty and therefore you would get much lower temps.

I was sorta overemphasizing that the VF900CU is not designed to perform well on the X1950XT, but to run quietly instead

[DOM]

Geez calm down man... you shouldnt be on the forum if ur that worked up...

I mean for the R580....

look at his specs. :roll::)

[tkpenalty]

look at his specs. :roll::)

He hasnt owned an acceleroX2, he doesnt know the awesomeness of it :pimp:

[DOM]

He hasnt owned an acceleroX2, he doesnt know the awesomeness of it :pimp:
:pYou don't know what you are talking about. I have both coolers and the VF900 is better then the Arctic X2. You just like Arctic more then Zalman because you have the cooler.
Don't say it's crap. Have you used the Zalman yourself?
The Arctic cooler revs up my motherboard temp by 5 degrees because of the idiotic hot air exhaust. Ok maybe they have the same cooling capacity but i would rather not have the hot air blown into my mobo.
The Zalman is a great cooler and maybe better then the X2.

Btw. This looks a lot more offensive then it was meant.;):p

But I think that intake is helping out alot which alot of ppl dont get just cuz you put an aftermarket cooler it needs good airflow, goes for all aircooling ;)

[Wile E]

You don't know what you are talking about. I have both coolers and the VF900 is better then the Arctic X2. You just like Arctic more then Zalman because you have the cooler.
Don't say it's crap. Have you used the Zalman yourself?
The Arctic cooler revs up my motherboard temp by 5 degrees because of the idiotic hot air exhaust. Ok maybe they have the same cooling capacity but i would rather not have the hot air blown into my mobo.
The Zalman is a great cooler and maybe better then the X2.

Btw. This looks a lot more offensive then it was meant.;):pThe X2 on my former X1800XT only raised my mobo temps by 2c. If 2c is gonna cause problems, then you need better chipset cooling to begin with.

Can't speak for the Zalman, I never owned one, but it doesn't exhaust the hot air out of the case either, so how is it any better?

[Kursah]

:p

But I think that intake is helping out alot which alot of ppl dont get just cuz you put an aftermarket cooler it needs good airflow, goes for all aircooling ;)

Couldn't have said it better myself, people often forget that fact. Airflow is vital, induction of cool air is just as important as removal of heat and exhuasting of hot air, proper venting can make a huge difference.

[tkpenalty]

Couldn't have said it better myself, people often forget that fact. Airflow is vital, induction of cool air is just as important as removal of heat and exhuasting of hot air, proper venting can make a huge difference.

AcceleroX2 performs poorly with low airflow... (well not poorly... like 39*C idle). Its drops like 5*C with normal airflow and even more with something like the antec 900.

[Grings]

i fitted an x2 to my x1800 and the mobo temp dropped, however there is a vent in my side panel right where the x2's fan sits

[tkpenalty]

i fitted an x2 to my x1800 and the mobo temp dropped, however there is a vent in my side panel right where the x2's fan sits

rofl!

Oh yeah how much can the X1950PRO overclock on stock voltages?

[technicks]

The X2 on my former X1800XT only raised my mobo temps by 2c. If 2c is gonna cause problems, then you need better chipset cooling to begin with.

Can't speak for the Zalman, I never owned one, but it doesn't exhaust the hot air out of the case either, so how is it any better?

I did not say it was better. I said that i was not a crappy cooler.:)

[technicks]

He hasnt owned an acceleroX2, he doesnt know the awesomeness of it :pimp:

LOL. I do. It's on my X1900GT that is my friends rig.;)

You are right about the temps.:respect: I get 36 idle and 45 load with my VF900.
Good enough for me.:D

http://img.techpowerup.org/070603/C070603_101820.jpg

[Oliver]

lol! AcceleroX2 > VF900CU, I just realised that AcceleroX2 doesnt go past 80*C for the X1950XT/XTX...

Even under heavy load.......(3d06 max aa and af run several times???)

The accelero must be good but i'd run a fan on the front or side of the case sucking in (often cooling the disks too) and a extra low fan on the back of the case to suck the hot air out (if any space from lack of cards)

I'd even call it dust buster;)

[tkpenalty]

Holy shit thats good, considering the fact that the X1900GT is 90nm...

Looks pretty sweet :). Nah a fan wouldnt do any good to it if its applying negative pressure. Rule of the thumb for the acceleroX2 is the better the intake, the better the performance, it gets even better if you remove the covers. If you have a stacker... and u use the inverted ATX setup, the AcceleroX2's temps drop even further as the PSU sucks the heat up like a blow hole, no heat actually acclumulates...

Now you look at the DHES system of the 8800GTS, and you get the "GPU destroying motherboard" problem... well does it happen with the acceleroX2? NO.

W00t... 621/770 @ stock clocks... actually gives a noticeable improvement! Now I just need to "overvolt" it a bit more (heh... the X1950XT runs at higher clocks and higher voltages anyway).

I got 32*C in an inverted setup with low intake fans.

[zekrahminator]

My VF-900 keeps my X850XT chilled in a case with a 120mm case intake fan and 120mm case exhaust.

Temps on "silent mode":
Idle: 30*C
Load: never higher than 60*C, generally around 55*C.

And Technicks, I know why you get such good temps....you live in the Netherlands :p.

[tkpenalty]

pfft X850 is easy to keep cool :p

[tkpenalty]

I just realized, whoever claims that a stock 120mm fan > my 92mm fan... is wrong. My friend's system has barely any air coming through it... I might get the CNPS9700; its not that big and it looks hawt.

Man I want an 8800GTS :(

[tkpenalty]

Did I just kill the thread? :(

[almighty]

No you did'nt kill the thread ;) Theres alot of info for me to read though so i better get started :D

[Grings]

rofl!

Oh yeah how much can the X1950PRO overclock on stock voltages?

rofl what?

[tkpenalty]

I went up to 621/770.... figures it runs 100% stable :)

[Kursah]

That's where mine is for 100% stability, I have been able to go a little higher, but not for too long, and if I use ATI Tools 3d fuzzy cube/artifact scanner anything over 614/750 will cause it to crash and reset, but anything else I do w/3d is fine at the higher speeds. I think the best OC I had was 628/783 in XP I can't quite remember ATM, but for some reason on Vista I can't get over 621 for long. I wish my x1950 would OC further, but ahh well it's a good card.

[tkpenalty]

621/770 is max... then you will need voltages.

[almighty]

Whats the temps for a stock 1950 PRO AGP?

Idle and Load?

And what roughly should they be when there OC'd? whats the max load temp before i start to get worried about it burning out?

[tkpenalty]

Um... what model do you have anyway :S....

70*C for me is MAX... anything higher and I'll scream. Seriously, aftermarket solutions, even the VF700ALCU will do a good job in cooling it down. Grab yourself an acceleroX2 and take pictures of ur GPU if possible.

[Oliver]

621/770 is max... then you will need voltages.

Not all the cards are equal......my x1950xt fails at 675/945.........i've tried a bit higher but to no avail!!!

[DOM]

Not all the cards are equal......my x1950xt fails at 675/945.........i've tried a bit higher but to no avail!!!

Have you tryed upping the volts in ATITool ? My max on stock volts are 675/972

[tkpenalty]

Not all the cards are equal......my x1950xt fails at 675/945.........i've tried a bit higher but to no avail!!!

Well considering that the memory ns is a big factor you can say that... but 621 for the RV570/RV560 on stock volts and 675 for the R580+. for the core...

[Oliver]

Have you tryed upping the volts in ATITool ? My max on stock volts are 675/972

Personnally I find ATITOOL quite a nuisance......I've tried it with the complete ATi ccc mom and all setup or with just the drivers etc etc............and never found it to be a extraordinary program (as most sofware overclockers) (except for the furry square I love it!!!and the temp gauge which seems better than the ATI dial arrangement):laugh:(In fact ATi should have something like that bundled on the CCC program;))

However kudos to the programmer for writing it, or reverse engineering it.

So my card is running a stock (well not exactly) 7.4 Warcat driver and CCC and i'll forgo the voltage settings:shadedshu

That card is still a blast and runs all my(very few) gaming sessions.

[DrXenos]

Anyone here having problems with HIS? I like their card well enough, but I am finding I do not like the company and will never purchase from them again. Every email I have sent to them requesting technical support has gone unanswered. Also, they sent me the wrong game (their cards come with a coupon for a free game). They use an outside company for this. I emailed that company about the problem. Their response was that I have to call them. Call them. They want me to make a transatlantic telephone call to solve what should be a simple problem. That will cost more than the game is even worth. I emailed HIS about this, and again, not response. I should have gone with my first impulse and bought a diamond (or even a sapphire).

Sigh.

[erocker]

I am thinking of getting a Thermalright tr-03 heatsink and a 92mm fan. I'll keep the vrm sinks from the HIS cooler. Do you think I can get a better overclock out of my x1950 with it, or will it just be limited by voltage?

[erocker]

Anyone here having problems with HIS? I like their card well enough, but I am finding I do not like the company and will never purchase from them again. Every email I have sent to them requesting technical support has gone unanswered. Also, they sent me the wrong game (their cards come with a coupon for a free game). They use an outside company for this. I emailed that company about the problem. Their response was that I have to call them. Call them. They want me to make a transatlantic telephone call to solve what should be a simple problem. That will cost more than the game is even worth. I emailed HIS about this, and again, not response. I should have gone with my first impulse and bought a diamond (or even a sapphire).

Sigh.

So, is there a problem with the card? Getting the wrong game happens all the time, you just have to deal with it. So what is the problem?

[Wayward]

Anyone here having problems with HIS? I like their card well enough, but I am finding I do not like the company and will never purchase from them again. Every email I have sent to them requesting technical support has gone unanswered. Also, they sent me the wrong game (their cards come with a coupon for a free game). They use an outside company for this. I emailed that company about the problem. Their response was that I have to call them. Call them. They want me to make a transatlantic telephone call to solve what should be a simple problem. That will cost more than the game is even worth. I emailed HIS about this, and again, not response. I should have gone with my first impulse and bought a diamond (or even a sapphire).

Sigh.

Never had any problems with HIS cards. I had a HIS 1900gt for quite some time.

So what is the problem with your card?

[tkpenalty]

Game or no game most of the time the games supplied are drab. What is your problem Xenos?

[bundlebr]

I am thinking of getting a Thermalright tr-03 heatsink and a 92mm fan. I'll keep the vrm sinks from the HIS cooler. Do you think I can get a better overclock out of my x1950 with it, or will it just be limited by voltage?

Doubt if you can get better overclock from your already OC'd card. Better temps - probably.
I have this HS on Sapphire reference PCIe card and was able to up the freqs from 580 to 614 on the GPU. You are already at 635...
BTW, there is voltage table in my bios, so I upped juces to 1.425 V or so - not sure if it worked...
Anyway, with Thermalright the temps and noise went way down...

[DrXenos]

Game or no game most of the time the games supplied are drab. What is your problem Xenos?

Getting the wrong game, and then getting no response about it, just increased my frustration when I never got an initial response from them about my main issue. Sometimes, admittedly quite infrequently, the display will get all corrupted. It only happens in 3d apps. and games, and the only fix is to reboot. I can usually make it happen if I run 3dmarks (05 or 06) over and over. Its not heat. The cards has never gone above 49 c. I thought it was my agp bus getting out of sync., but dropping my rate down to 4x and/or disabling fast writes doesn't stop it. Doing a clean install of the drivers made the occurrences go way, way, down but did not totally alleviated it. I'm sorry for the rant. I just get very frustrated when I am ignored by a company that has taken a lot of my money. They won't get any more.

Thanks,

DrX

[Wayward]

Getting the wrong game, and then getting no response about it, just increased my frustration when I never got an initial response from them about my main issue. Sometimes, admittedly quite infrequently, the display will get all corrupted. It only happens in 3d apps. and games, and the only fix is to reboot. I can usually make it happen if I run 3dmarks (05 or 06) over and over. Its not heat. The cards has never gone above 49 c. I thought it was my agp bus getting out of sync., but dropping my rate down to 4x and/or disabling fast writes doesn't stop it. Doing a clean install of the drivers made the occurrences go way, way, down but did not totally alleviated it. I'm sorry for the rant. I just get very frustrated when I am ignored by a company that has taken a lot of my money. They won't get any more.

Thanks,

DrX

Oh, so it's just the game...

...nvm.

[DrXenos]

Oh, so it's just the game...

...nvm.

No. Where did I say that?

[tkpenalty]

Getting the wrong game, and then getting no response about it, just increased my frustration when I never got an initial response from them about my main issue. Sometimes, admittedly quite infrequently, the display will get all corrupted. It only happens in 3d apps. and games, and the only fix is to reboot. I can usually make it happen if I run 3dmarks (05 or 06) over and over. Its not heat. The cards has never gone above 49 c. I thought it was my agp bus getting out of sync., but dropping my rate down to 4x and/or disabling fast writes doesn't stop it. Doing a clean install of the drivers made the occurrences go way, way, down but did not totally alleviated it. I'm sorry for the rant. I just get very frustrated when I am ignored by a company that has taken a lot of my money. They won't get any more.

Thanks,

DrX

It would help if you did provide your system specs, stop blaming HIS, this sounds more like your PSU can't handle it... Generally the main problem is people overlook the need for a decent PSU. Something like at least an Antec Basiq 500W PSU would do... But I'm not saying you should get it. Get like a Decent 600W PSU from something like antec, 600W is overkill in my opinion as most gaming PCs barely use near 400W. 600W because you can use it for a future PC.

As I said post your system specs, go to user CP, then enter it in.

[DrXenos]

It would help if you did provide your system specs, stop blaming HIS, this sounds more like your PSU can't handle it... Generally the main problem is people overlook the need for a decent PSU. Something like at least an Antec Basiq 500W PSU would do... But I'm not saying you should get it. Get like a Decent 600W PSU from something like antec, 600W is overkill in my opinion as most gaming PCs barely use near 400W. 600W because you can use it for a future PC.

As I said post your system specs, go to user CP, then enter it in.

I never "blamed" HIS for the problem. I fault them for not responding to my requests for support. My PSU is fine. I have a Power & Cooling 730 watt w/ a 60 amp rail.

DrX

[tkpenalty]

lol... Jetway just released a GDDR4 X1950PRO.

[MadCow]

How about this PRO:
http://1pixelhost.com/Uploads/files/ic0znf3dimtaendyybty.jpg

As you can see, it's the newer Sapphire PCB with the cheaper VRM's. I put on an Accelero X2 and a custom heatsink for the VRM's made out of a really old northbridge cooler . I have it voltmodded to 1.49 core and 1.98 memory. Without the heatsink the VRM's got really hot under load, so I cut up an old northbridge cooler and stuck it on with the stock thermal pads. Right now it's running at 682/1608 100% stable. I got the core up to 700 once, but it locked up after a few seconds of 3dmark. The memory goes up to around 1700, but that causes artifacts after a few minutes.

Am I in? ;)

[tkpenalty]

How about this PRO:
http://1pixelhost.com/Uploads/files/ic0znf3dimtaendyybty.jpg

As you can see, it's the newer Sapphire PCB with the cheaper VRM's. I put on an Accelero X2 and a custom heatsink for the VRM's made out of a really old northbridge cooler . I have it voltmodded to 1.49 core and 1.98 memory. Without the heatsink the VRM's got really hot under load, so I cut up an old northbridge cooler and stuck it on with the stock thermal pads. Right now it's running at 682/1608 100% stable. I got the core up to 700 once, but it locked up after a few seconds of 3dmark. The memory goes up to around 1700, but that causes artifacts after a few minutes.

Am I in? ;)

Yeah and remove that heatsink, its doing nothing XD. U are cooling the MOFSETs. u see them? If u want cool the rest.

[MadCow]

Yeah and remove that heatsink, its doing nothing XD. U are cooling the MOFSETs. u see them? If u want cool the rest.

Really? Because without the heatsink the vreg almost burned my finger when I held it there for a second. That's pretty hot in my book. But the heatsink is there just in case, it took me 2 minutes to make it, might as well leave it there.:p

The MOSFETS don't get nearly as hot as the vregs.

[insider]

The vreg, mosfets and caps all get hot, infact even the darn PCB surface on my card runs HOT at idle.

I've sinked all of them including the mosfets at the back of the card and the GPU voltage controller, one small heatsink (or even those tiny slim copper ramsinks) could cover 2 mosfets per sink, either is sufficient for the job. The vregs should be sinked with individual heatsinks.

Due to the height of the tiny square heatsink on the GPU voltage controller chip I had to epoxy a taller heatsink at the back of the card directly onto the cards PCB surface (to protect the VC from accidently getting crushed), even the heatsink directly on the PCB surface gets pretty warn, all this with overkill case airflow.

Which reminds me, I need to replace the stock cooler asap! :D

[tkpenalty]

They run hot? Well i thought Sapphire went for a Vreg free PCB...

Gigabyte is the best brand IMHO. Solid caps no vregs :D Im barfing at those G-Luxons sapphire love to use...

[MadCow]

They run hot? Well i thought Sapphire went for a Vreg free PCB...

Gigabyte is the best brand IMHO. Solid caps no vregs :D Im barfing at those G-Luxons sapphire love to use...

They did, but I have mine voltmodded to 1.49 core and 1.98 memory. They still have vregs, you just can't adjust them. I could do some cutting for the MOSFETs, but I don't really see the point.

@insider: You really need to replace the stock cooler, my PCB got really hot on load, with this Accelero everything including the part right behind the core runs cool.

[tkpenalty]

They did, but I have mine voltmodded to 1.49 core and 1.98 memory. They still have vregs, you just can't adjust them. I could do some cutting for the MOSFETs, but I don't really see the point.

@insider: You really need to replace the stock cooler, my PCB got really hot on load, with this Accelero everything including the part right behind the core runs cool.

Man I just installed the VRM plate on the heatsinks, even though i already have one, im going to install some behind the VRMs... the space behind it gets too hot to touch

[Oliver]

Well here it is and installed and blowing me away............Sapphire HD 2900XT

Bye bye x1950xt (broke it when trying to unglue a heatsink glued with Artic Epoxy:laugh:) and the nethercooler from Zalman (in its box)

Does anybody have a softmod so as to show the oc pane in the CCC w/o the 8 pin plug????

[MadCow]

Well here it is and installed and blowing me away............Sapphire HD 2900XT

Bye bye x1950xt (broke it when trying to unglue a heatsink glued with Artic Epoxy:laugh:) and the nethercooler from Zalman (in its box)

Does anybody have a softmod so as to show the oc pane in the CCC w/o the 8 pin plug????

The newest version of ATITool can overclock the R600 now, you should try that instead.

[tkpenalty]

Well here it is and installed and blowing me away............Sapphire HD 2900XT

Bye bye x1950xt (broke it when trying to unglue a heatsink glued with Artic Epoxy:laugh:) and the nethercooler from Zalman (in its box)

Does anybody have a softmod so as to show the oc pane in the CCC w/o the 8 pin plug????

Not at the moment no, but I think the AMD Clock tool will work; its the best Overclocking tool minus the extra features.

[Wile E]

.27 Beta 2 of ATITool just released, it supports the 2900.

Here's the thread: http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=33447

[Oliver]

I love my new GPU:p:p:p


a few numbers:

core 850 mem 1007

3d03 1024x768 basic default settings: 42365
3d05 1024x768 basic default settings: 19633
3d06 1024x768 basic default settings: 13767

and that with cool temps:

ASIC Temperature via LM64 on DDC3 I2C [0]
Minimum temperature: 45.500 C
Maximum temperature: 75.625 C
Average temperature: 50.754 C

LM64 local temperature on DDC3 I2C [0]
Minimum temperature: 44.000 C
Maximum temperature: 65.000 C
Average temperature: 48.232 C

[DOM]

I love my new GPU:p:p:p


a few numbers:

core 850 mem 1007

3d03 1024x768 basic default settings: 42365
3d05 1024x768 basic default settings: 19633
3d06 1024x768 basic default settings: 13767

and that with cool temps:

ASIC Temperature via LM64 on DDC3 I2C [0]
Minimum temperature: 45.500 C
Maximum temperature: 75.625 C
Average temperature: 50.754 C

LM64 local temperature on DDC3 I2C [0]
Minimum temperature: 44.000 C
Maximum temperature: 65.000 C
Average temperature: 48.232 C;)1280x1024 is default settings for 3DM06

[Oliver]

;)1280x1024 is default settings for 3DM06

Ok i'll run a batch on that setting.

[Oliver]

Ok i'll run a batch on that setting.



3d03 1280x1024 basic default settings: 32854 3DMarks
3d05 1280x1024 basic default settings: 18342 3DMarks
3d06 1280x1024 basic default settings: 12228 3DMarks


Woooot!!!:cool::rockout:

[Wile E]

3d03 1280x1024 basic default settings: 32854 3DMarks
3d05 1280x1024 basic default settings: 18342 3DMarks
3d06 1280x1024 basic default settings: 12228 3DMarks


Woooot!!!:cool::rockout:
What are you using to overclock, Oliver? With ATITool, I got a better score with mem at 999, than I did with mem at 1013ish, and both were completely stable with no artifacts.

It seems the latencies get loosened when you go above 999 on the memory. In other forums, others said they had to take it all the way to 1060 before they could beat the score 999 gave.

[Oliver]

What are you using to overclock, Oliver? With ATITool, I got a better score with mem at 999, than I did with mem at 1013ish, and both were completely stable with no artifacts.

It seems the latencies get loosened when you go above 999 on the memory. In other forums, others said they had to take it all the way to 1060 before they could beat the score 999 gave.

Amd gpu tool its really lite n all...........the way I like them.:rolleyes:

I've always had pbs with ATITOOL

[tkpenalty]

I'm screaming ouch at the new amd drivers... and GPUs.... Guys who have the R5xxx download the 7.6 Drivers asap if u think the 7.5 drivers were fast!!!

[Widjaja]

Around 76deg max under load and the referrence coolers are quite loud at that load too.

Gaming is fine though.

Why would Sapphire put such a crappy cooler on this card?:wtf:

[anticlutch]

To save money.

[Wayward]

To save money.

Exactly. Imagine the cost of mounting really good coolers on all their cards...

[Oliver]

Exactly. Imagine the cost of mounting really good coolers on all their cards...

Imagine RMA ing every single card sold..........costs even more; really the stock cooler is good at stock speeds and a little ( ocing with CCC for example)

However to get best performance you definitely need to modify your cooling

[Wayward]

Imagine RMA ing every single card sold..........costs even more; really the stock cooler is good at stock speeds and a little ( ocing with CCC for example)

However to get best performance you definitely need to modify your cooling

Wait, are you saying that, hypothetically, if the manufacturer shipped their cards with decent coolers, everyone would start overclocking and breaking them? Because I've seen several companies ship cards with aftermarket coolers pre-installed for a premium.

I swapped my stock for a vf-900 not to overclock, but to get what I consider to be decent temps. Yes the card will work at the temps provided by the stock cooler, but it's a little too close for comfort from my perspective.

[tkpenalty]

Wait, are you saying that, hypothetically, if the manufacturer shipped their cards with decent coolers, everyone would start overclocking and breaking them? Because I've seen several companies ship cards with aftermarket coolers pre-installed for a premium.

I swapped my stock for a vf-900 not to overclock, but to get what I consider to be decent temps. Yes the card will work at the temps provided by the stock cooler, but it's a little too close for comfort from my perspective.

No, reason why sapphire uses those cooler is because AMD wont bitch... if they used full copper, you wouldnt see the problems that they have atm.

[Widjaja]

No, reason why sapphire uses those cooler is because AMD wont bitch... if they used full copper, you wouldnt see the problems that they have atm.

That's pretty stupid.
Cheaping out and from what I'm gathering around the place it's costing them:D

I really like this card but I won't be OCing it with it's referrence cooler howling away under load.

Only if Sapphire had at least placed a sexy IceQ3 cooler on it. . . .:rockout:

Anyway the gains I got out of this card when moving to a x2 4800+ CPU from the P4 3Ghz HT have been worthwhile IMO.

[tkpenalty]

That's pretty stupid.
Cheaping out and from what I'm gathering around the place it's costing them:D

I really like this card but I won't be OCing it with it's referrence cooler howling away under load.

Only if Sapphire had at least placed a sexy IceQ3 cooler on it. . . .:rockout:

Anyway the gains I got out of this card when moving to a x2 4800+ CPU from the P4 3Ghz HT have been worthwhile IMO.

Sapphires with better cooling overclock better.

[Wayward]

Only if Sapphire had at least placed a sexy IceQ3 cooler on it. . . .:rockout:

IceQ3 is a HIS only thing unfortunately. It's the best dual-slot exhaust type cooler I've seen. But you'll still see better temps with the vf-900 or the AccelroX-2. This thread has all the proof you need. I was surprised myself that the vf-900 which doesn't exhaust hot air is superior to the IceQ3 which does.

[tkpenalty]

IceQ3 is a HIS only thing unfortunately. It's the best dual-slot exhaust type cooler I've seen. But you'll still see better temps with the vf-900 or the AccelroX-2. This thread has all the proof you need. I was surprised myself that the vf-900 which doesn't exhaust hot air is superior to the IceQ3 which does.

Yeah HIS finally went to themselves "Well lets make our own graphics card cooler"

Fresh cooler air doesnt really do anything just to let you know.... thats why the AcceleroX2/VF900CU work better, they got more surface area and more heatpipes.

[Oliver]

3d03 1280x1024 basic default settings: 32854 3DMarks



Woooot!!!:cool::rockout:

Even better with 7.6 cats:
3DMark03 Score 42119 3DMarks
3dmark 05 and 06 follow suite
3DMark Score 21287 3DMarks
3DMark 06Score 12469 3DMarks

those ctas rock compared to the preceding version

I love the graphics of that 3dmark series:rolleyes:

[tkpenalty]

Oliver, try investing in one of those swiftech kits...

[Oliver]

Oliver, try investing in one of those swiftech kits...

No thanx tk I surf on water;), and cool on air:)

[tkpenalty]

No thanx tk I surf on water;), and cool on air:)

Well it is still air cooled since the radiator is initially a large heatsink :P. Heatpipe cooling can be called water cooling because it has vapour (under extrememly high pressure though). Anyway, Lap the base of the cooler, and make sure you also even the shim, since the contact pressure may reduce with the bare die (damn AMD why couldnt they use an IHS instead?)

[erocker]

Heatpipe cooling can be called water cooling because it has vapour (under extrememly high pressure though

That is a myth. Nothing but air @ 0 p.s.i. in those pipes.

[anticlutch]

Well it is still air cooled since the radiator is initially a large heatsink :P. Heatpipe cooling can be called water cooling because it has vapour (under extrememly high pressure though). Anyway, Lap the base of the cooler, and make sure you also even the shim, since the contact pressure may reduce with the bare die (damn AMD why couldnt they use an IHS instead?)

You mean extremely low pressure ;)
The boiling point of water becomes lower when the pressure drops.

[tkpenalty]

oh yeah... same thing. Hey guys can you give votes of 5 to my C2D clubhouse if you havent? Been some guys constantly annoying me.

[Random Murderer]

first off, i figured i'd come in here since a lot of you guys have the his 1950 pro.

is anyone with the iceq3 cooler willing to trade for a vf 900 and some ramsinks? my dual cards dont match and its driving me nuts!

[tkpenalty]

first off, i figured i'd come in here since a lot of you guys have the his 1950 pro.

is anyone with the iceq3 cooler willing to trade for a vf 900 and some ramsinks? my dual cards dont match and its driving me nuts!

Why dont you ring up HIS and buy an ICEQIII cooler off them? I really wish they made them a seperate product though.. :( Just buy another VF900CU.

[tkpenalty]

Oh yeah to anyone considering going with the HD2400PRO, HD2400XT, HD2600PRO, HD2600XT I would go with an X1950GT Instead for now. Wait until AMD starts focusing on improving DX10 since their driver releases only seem to do better for the RV5xx/R5xx GPUs.

[Oliver]

Well it is still air cooled since the radiator is initially a large heatsink :P.
Too cool.........my car is air cooled ; my ac is air cooled; I'm air cooled;everything is aircooled..........How about an aircooled earth, might take care of the global warming Pb........even though its july and we're freezing our asses here.

Cool: open the window and lower the temps (not joking I can drop 2° with that method)

[tkpenalty]

Too cool.........my car is air cooled ; my ac is air cooled; I'm air cooled;everything is aircooled..........How about an aircooled earth, might take care of the global warming Pb........even though its july and we're freezing our asses here.

Cool: open the window and lower the temps (not joking I can drop 2° with that method)

Oh yeah? Ill get the windows open and a large blower fan! (This is getting way off topic :laugh:).

[Oliver]

first off, i figured i'd come in here since a lot of you guys have the his 1950 pro.

is anyone with the iceq3 cooler willing to trade for a vf 900 and some ramsinks? my dual cards dont match and its driving me nuts!

I can sell you my Vf900 cu if you like.........

[Oliver]

Oh yeah? Ill get the windows open and a large blower fan! (This is getting way off topic :laugh:).

Seriously I don't like the idea of running my HD2900xt on water, or otherwise think out a super efficient system to cool the mems with multiple small blocks or a large one like the one swiftech makes for Nvidia.......I'll hold back and see what develops. For now anyway I lke my HD as it is running 850/1007 ......

never crashes and stays relatively cool (max temp in 3d06 at those speeds extraced from amd tool log file:-notice the speeds are slightly lower than the settings
19:33:22, ASIC Temperature via LM64 on DDC3 I2C [0] (C) = 73.875, LM64 local temperature on DDC3 I2C [0] (C) = 63.000, MCLK(MHz)[0] = 999.00, SCLK(MHz)[0] = 843.75

[Random Murderer]

I can sell you my Vf900 cu if you like.........

i would really prefer another iceq3. thanks a bunch though!

[DOM]

I got one but dont think I would sell it :p

[Random Murderer]

I got one but dont think I would sell it :p

how bout trade it for a vf900 and some ramsinks?

[DOM]

how bout trade it for a vf900 and some ramsinks?

They dont work that good on the 1950XT I get the same or better temps with the IceQ3 and puls if I need to RMA it I need the cooler sorry :D

[tkpenalty]

They dont work that good on the 1950XT I get the same or better temps with the IceQ3 and puls if I need to RMA it I need the cooler sorry :D

In fact they die on the X1950XT... 90*C WTF....

[insider]

Small surface area and the fan on it isn't powerful enough to cool down all the cooper fins fast enough, you could probably rip the stock fan off and install a higher CFM fan but I doubt it'll perform that great unless you stick something crazy like a 92mm Vantec Tornado.

[tkpenalty]

lol let me unofficially invite my friend who isnt in this forum into the club.

http://img.techpowerup.org/070705/aaaa.jpg What to u think about the setup i did for him?

[Random Murderer]

ok. i got my 1950 pro crossfire up and running. im in da club now!

[insider]

lol let me unofficially invite my friend who isnt in this forum into the club.
What to u think about the setup i did for him?

Nice case, I'd install standard slot covers over those ones that allow air through, all the cool air should be flowing from the case front and hot air should be passing out of the rear case fan.

[TonyStark]

Good afternoon Gentlemen.

I finally got my hands on one of these bad boys. Gigabyte HD2900XT.

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9607/pict0002go4.jpg


Needs a bit of cable management, but I just couldn't wait to test it out!

[tkpenalty]

Nice case, I'd install standard slot covers over those ones that allow air through, all the cool air should be flowing from the case front and hot air should be passing out of the rear case fan.

Those are the standard slot covers...

[tkpenalty]

Good afternoon Gentlemen.

I finally got my hands on one of these bad boys. Gigabyte HD2900XT.

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9607/pict0002go4.jpg


Needs a bit of cable management, but I just couldn't wait to test it out!

very nice :) Especially with the HD2900XT installed. What case are you using? Antec SONATA II?

[TonyStark]

Thanks. It is the CoolerMaster Centurion.

[tkpenalty]

Oh yeah guys the sapphire X1950PROs, they've switched back to the old normal PCB HOWEVER, there is a welcome change, they've bolted a large aluminium heatsinks to cool the VRMs. The cooler is the same X1950GT cooler. So buy the sapphire X1950PRO if you plan on using a water cooling setup.

What I'm saying is, you just need to rip off the stock cooler and not need to use a VRM plate for aftermarket cooling.

[tkpenalty]

Whats the temps for a stock 1950 PRO AGP?

Idle and Load?

And what roughly should they be when there OC'd? whats the max load temp before i start to get worried about it burning out?

the stock cooler of the X1950PRO AGP? Well the reference design did around 65*C On load and 45+*C On idle. However sapphire's version of the cooler is aluminium and temps are like 75*C +. Anyway burning out would be around 120*C.

However anything around 70*C will reduce your lifespan of the GPU and I would at max have the GPU running at 65*C. Anything higher = FAIL for me.

^whoops...

[wolf]

update on my cooling situation.

a few months ago i did a Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZV9, ramsinks, and VRM cooling, on a Sapphire x1950Pro AGP 512, and that worked brilliantly, i don't think i ever saw 50 degrees.

now i have taken the case side off. and backed a cheap old air conditioning unit next to it, the air is cooler than room temp but my no means cold or icy, new temps are as follows.

GPU MIN/MAX 28.3/44.3 AVG MIN/MAX 29/43

PCB MIN/MAX 22.0/29.0 AVG MIN/MAX 23/27

all of these tests were using the ati cube to stress it out, clocks are at 600/1430

the cubes pushes it much more than games too, so far i haven't topped 40 degrees playing ANY game yet, bf2142, hl2, c&c3.... thats lower on load now that the stock cooler pulled at idle, and nye on exactly half the temp that it pulled under full load with a dynamic fan.

Cheapest cooling solution EVER, my hot hot old Prescott's down by over 10 degrees on idle and load too. i picked this thing up on a verge pickup, someone was throwing it out, all it needed was a 30 second fix (and i'm hardly a handyman), 10 liters of water gives me about 6 hours worth of "chilly" gaming, so since i'm on holidays, i'll just skip showers to accommodate the water :D

so is it still air cooling, water cooling, or both?

[TonyStark]

LOL. Nice cooling setup. How are those electricity bills? :D

[wolf]

iunno, havent seen one yet :P, and i gotta fill it with water too, today i did some testing with some big iceblocks, and a buttload of icecubes in the water, so the water was at about 5-6 degrees for an hour or so, temps are as follows.

3d cube test

GPU MIN/MAX 24.6 / 41.1
PCB MIN/MAX 18.0 / 23.0

so there wasnt much variation between using super chilly water and normal water (2-6 degrees), but the difference between water and no water is 7+ degrees, which is weird cos on fan only temps all thru the case only lower by about a degree or two, i guess the antec P180 has great stock ventilation anyway.

[mitsirfishi]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=3232144 still can get abit more out the cpu and cutting more processes out and could do with a vcore mod to my card recon 11.5k would be acheivable

[DOM]

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=3232144 still can get abit more out the cpu and cutting more processes out and could do with a vcore mod to my card recon 11.5k would be acheivable

What do you get on 3DM06 ??

[mitsirfishi]

im downloading it :P but last time i tried before i formatted i got 5.8k

[tkpenalty]

5.8k? Thats pretty nice.

Crap.. my AcceleroX2 is starting to buzz I think its that bios mod thats causing it. Anyone who has a X1950PRO with an AcceleroX2 installed for more than two months, may you please check the cooler, there WILL be a lot of dust inside. Easy solution is to blow in from the fan side. OR use compressed air. Not recommended if your asthmatic because its a literal dust gun!

EDIT: Wolf, I recommend you swap the motherboard as well.

[mitsirfishi]

arctic cooling always have vibration problems normally the bearings go in them quiet quick

[tkpenalty]

Doesnt work.........

Anyway a bit of help here......... (GOING OFF TOPIC)

My old system has a problem, replaced PSU got a 9800XT..........now its making a whine-squeal type of noise.

Also more odd the 12v and 5v rails keep going from 12.2 to 12.1 then for the 5v, 5.01 4.9.....

It gets odder.

The CPU core temps go ballistic, all of a sudden 18*C then jumps to 21 then 18 again... weird.

[tkpenalty]

^Screw what I posted.

Anyway with the antec SOLO, the temps of the X1950PRO dropped even further; by 2*C This is amazing! I've had nothing but drab luckc overclocking this thing. The only thing that gives better performance are the newer drivers.

[insider]

Modified Arctic Accelero X2 with 1x 80mm 45CFM YS-Tech + 1x 60mm Panaflo fan on my Sapphire X1950GT:

http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8638&d=1184605205


The Arctic Accelero X2 with stock fan was a piece of junk as expected with that POS <10 CFM fan, barely 8C lower the stock cooler, modded with proper airflow the card is now around 15-18C cooler at full load with ATI-Tool artifact tester running on a warm day.

Another major issue with the X2 running with stock fan is all the heat is directed (via crap airflow) directly onto the motherboard, this heated my board up by a good few degrees during load.

Gonna replace that low noise (10-12~ CFM) 60mm panaflo with something double the output later...

[tkpenalty]

roflmao... 15-18*C cooler? Actual temps? But... THATS CRAZY :) (looks very cool as well, kudos).

Hmm I might buy a 80mm fan the half size ones and attatch that instead :D.

[tkpenalty]

argh this clubhouse died? (BUMP)

[insider]

It's the summer holiday period, well maybe not summer for aussies :D

[TonyStark]

It is a cold winter here in Aus. Low temps = good overclocks. :)

[p_o_s_pc]

I just wanted to post here i HAD a x1950pro PCI-E with the ICE-Q3 cooler i had it overclocked to 650/1150 temps were 41c idle 56c load. The card is dead now.

[tkpenalty]

wah? How did it die? RMA it.

[p_o_s_pc]

don't know how but it did.Your about 3 1/2 months too late i already did and they didn't have anymore of them so i got a 7900GS and i don't like it so it is for sale. I was just running 3dmark 06 and i got a screen full of diffrent colors and than the FPS went from about 40fps down to 14fps than the computer crashed and when i turned it back on i got beeps and checked to see what they were and it was the video card so i took it out and used onboard and i got my computer to post.I don't think it was being under powered i was powering it with the Hiper type-R that i am using now.

[tkpenalty]

At least change the mobo and CPU :p

[TonyStark]

I just wanted to post here i HAD a x1950pro PCI-E with the ICE-Q3 cooler i had it overclocked to 650/1150 temps were 41c idle 56c load. The card is dead now.

1150 on the memory? How the hell did you pull that? Oh well, hope all goes well with the RMA.

[p_o_s_pc]

1150 on the memory? How the hell did you pull that? Oh well, hope all goes well with the RMA.

not sure how i did.Wish i still had the ss to show you

[Ninkobwi]

so, ah can anyone point me to an x1950 (gt/pro are about the same I assume) volt mod page?

Madcow pointed me to this pencil mod site http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=227931&highlight=x1950+pro+vmod

but I am unsure the exact details of a pencil mod. from what I gather, just use a #2 pencil and draw a line between the two diode looking things. (I'm not terribly hardware savvy)

just wanting to v-mod my memory to try to push Pro speeds.

[tkpenalty]

No... not a lead pencil, electronic pencil, conductive ink. Anyway soldering will work the same but is a hassle to remove. But Im afraid thats already the max you can push your X1950GT... especailly since you have stock cooling.

[Darknova]

I just got a 1950XT 512Mb version with an Accelero X2 :D The thing is so damn quiet....

[tkpenalty]

Grats :D, show us photos of it :P

[Darknova]

Ok, but you'll have to wait until I finish work :(

[Widjaja]

To something worse?

Helping out at Sapphire forums I came across this guy who ordered a Sapphire X1950pro AGP which looks to be fitted with a X1950GT cooler.

Come on the X1950pro standard cooler could only manage to cool the GPU to mid 70's while gaming.

8667

[tkpenalty]

Yes X1950PROs are now fitted with the X1950GT Cooler. BUT, they have reverted to the normal PCB and now use a large heatsink to cool the VRMs.

[Widjaja]

Thanks that will make him feel a bit better.
Although he still has to get a new PSU to run it.
Damn the amount of times I seen this PSU issue posted. . . .
The moderators at Sapphire don't seem to be caring much.

[tkpenalty]

What do u mean PSU issue...? People think you need a frickn nuclear powerplant to run this... well I'll say this once, the X1950PRO/GT are moderate power users, however its nothing to worry about, any 400W Non-Generic PSU that at least pumps out 200W on the
There ARE bad brands out there but people be a bit less ignorant.

This is why im trading my iGreen 600W for a NEO HE 430W.

Anyway... PSU wise... I would say at least something as "weak" one of those Coolermaster Xtremepower 430W would be more than enough for an X1950PRO... cheap and solid. HD2900XT However... :roll: Okay, um you DO need a decent PSU to get this thing running properly... I would say at LEAST an CM Xtremepower 550W. Anyway, something that kills everything at the same price as a NEO HE atm is the thermaltake toughpower, that thing is a BEAST. 600W, almost doubles the amperages my PSU gives. The HD2900XT will run nicely on this PSU for sure.

[Widjaja]

Lol thats what I've been hearing around the place.
My No name 450W +12v15a PSU was running it fine with my P4 rig.
I didn't have any issues.

But I keep on seeing threads of people not being able to get thier X1950pros to work. . .

Hold on.

Sapphire has dual molex connectors.

I wonder if he used the Y-splitter supplied in the package to power the GPU off one 4-pin molex power cable. . .

I just told him to go to the recommended PSU page which I think is at the ATi website.
Just so if it doesn't work he can blame it on someone who knows thier job.

[tkpenalty]

450W Generic PSU = GTFO. As I said, at least a CM Xtreme power 430W, and what... that only costs a tiny bit more than generic POS yet works rock solid.

[TonyStark]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; The x1950PRO only uses about 65 Watts. It only pulls about 5-6 Amps from the 12V rails.

I'm currently running a HD2900XT on a 530W PSU with 32Amps on the 12V rails.

[imperialreign]

tkp . . . you requiring permission to join up here, or just post away? :confused:

[Widjaja]

450w Generic = GTFO?

Anyway TK and Tony thanks for pointing out the actual amperage consumption on these cards, now I'll tell the poor people at Sapphire who have these "PSU" issues and just RMA the card I guess.

Imperialreign
You'll need a pic of your card in your rig and 50+ posts, then I think you'll be accepted.

[tkpenalty]

tkp . . . you requiring permission to join up here, or just post away? :confused:

Yep your in for sure

But With ur build atm, I would do something about it, if you think its sufficient, so be it. I would sell the CPU, Mobo and RAM, then forking out some cash to get a new CPU (Like a E2140), RAM and motherboard, like one of those GA965P DS3s.

450w Generic = GTFO?

Anyway TK and Tony thanks for pointing out the actual amperage consumption on these cards, now I'll tell the poor people at Sapphire who have these "PSU" issues and just RMA the card I guess.

Imperialreign
You'll need a pic of your card in your rig and 50+ posts, then I think you'll be accepted.

Screw that rule :p

GTFO = Get the fuck out. I mean by 450 Generic = deserves to be running a non 6-pin PCI-E system.


Imho, you guys are WAY overstressing the need for a good GPU cooler. If you dont overclock and dont mind the noise, it is pointless getting the Sapphire X1950PRO's cooler changed (Newer revision at least, the cooler does better than the original one, pretty sound performing). The GPU can take 120*C Before heat related artifacts and core damage begin, yes 70*C sounds a bit hot but dont bitch too much about it. One thing though, I would NEVER buy a thermaltake Soprano series case... Why? The intakes on sopranos NEVER work properly. GPUs run far cooler with a substantial intake. 75*C guys... not that bad, nevertheless... reports of it sounding like an F1.... where the hell did that come from?

[p_o_s_pc]

just wanted to tell you that my next card is going to be an ATI it is going to be sometime still.

[tkpenalty]

Hmm.... ATI eh? Wait for HD2900XT GDDR4 benchies to come out first. Only AMD cards recommended from me:

-X1950PRO (powercolor extreme, HIS, gigabyte)
-X1950XT (Sapphire)
-HD2900XT (Any brand, as long as there is warranty after OC, preferably sapphire).

[p_o_s_pc]

Hmm.... ATI eh? Wait for HD2900XT GDDR4 benchies to come out first. Only AMD cards recommended from me:

-X1950PRO (powercolor extreme, HIS, gigabyte)
-X1950XT (Sapphire)
-HD2900XT (Any brand, as long as there is warranty after OC, preferably sapphire).

Had a HIS x1950pro died i was looking at a x1950xt but i was thinking of something that isn't out of date yet that is were a 2900xt came in.I got some time to think about it while i save my money.

[Widjaja]

tkpenalty
I don't OC my GPU and I don't mind the noise at all.
The only time it's the loudest fan is for a couple of seconds before I startup my system
Actually when my PSU gets really working it makes a pulsing hum that virbrates the case.
Which is the most standout noise which comes from my rig.

I'm pretty sure you reccommended me to get a better cooler.

Why don't you recommend the Sapphire 1950pro model?

But yeah

I'm waiting till the AMD phenom comes out before I think of doing any more upgrading.

p o s
Why are you selling your 7900GS?

Be like my bro and get a eVGA 8800GTX and find out he has to OC his C2D to the extreme edition speed to keep up with it LOL!

Yet Oblivion is still stuttery on his rig.

[tkpenalty]

Reason is simple for selling the 7900s...they are weak with newer games.

[Widjaja]

Hmm sounds like a plan.
My braggy mate is looking for a new GPU to replace his 7600GT PCI-E
He thinks his Pentium D rig is the best!
Maybe I can con him into buying a 7900GS

[tkpenalty]

7900GS > 7600GT any day of the week. Give him need for speed carbon, that will shut him up, run it at 1024x786, medium shader, 4x aa max af, and then add motion blur... :roll:

Anyway the X1950PRO doubles framerates in comparison with the 7950GT for a reference... the 7900GS in NFS:C is very close to the 7600GT...

You should really show him some newer games like COH and NFS:C... those games are extremely shader intensive.

[p_o_s_pc]

Hmm sounds like a plan.
My braggy mate is looking for a new GPU to replace his 7600GT PCI-E
He thinks his Pentium D rig is the best!
Maybe I can con him into buying a 7900GS

if so please buy mine you can see pics if you click the link to go to my FS thread.

[p_o_s_pc]

about need for speed carbon when i run it i can have almost everything maxed running at 1024x768 but also this card is overclocked to 500/690 when at the 450/660 (i think) the rated speed it can't run NFSC vary well but it is the KO video card so 500/690 is the speed that it comes from EVGA as and i have got it up to 560/720 for a short time for benchmarking and it worked fine so this thing still has some room to go if someone wanted to overclock.

[imperialreign]

But With ur build atm, I would do something about it, if you think its sufficient, so be it. I would sell the CPU, Mobo and RAM, then forking out some cash to get a new CPU (Like a E2140), RAM and motherboard, like one of those GA965P DS3s.


no doubt about that, little by little, y'know? Starting to save for the next big upgrade for my rig; currently eyeballin either a Giga or Abit mobo (still undecided on that yet) but preferably something with crossfire capabilities - in which case, I'll be looking to pick up an HD2900, but defi looking at either the Intel Core 2 Extreme or an Intel Core 2 Duo - either way I'll be shelling fat cash there, and no skimp on the RAM either. I'd also like to swap out the HD's for RAID enabled units. Oh, and I'll have to defi grab a new case, this eMachines is cramped as it is (but somehow I've managed to keep it relatively cool).

It's just a little struggle, I had to buy something back in Jan, after going for 2 years without a rig - so I'm still a little behind on the newer tech as it is. Hell, my old rig was a Pentium(II) 400MMX, running a VooDoo3 graphics adapter, and a Soundblaster Live! for audio. She vintage, man!

BTW - you still requiring pics of my card and rig? I'll post em if needs be . . .

[p_o_s_pc]

you want a pic from were i had my x1950pro? I still have a pic of it.

[p_o_s_pc]

7900GS > 7600GT any day of the week. Give him need for speed carbon, that will shut him up, run it at 1024x786, medium shader, 4x aa max af, and then add motion blur... :roll:

Anyway the X1950PRO doubles framerates in comparison with the 7950GT for a reference... the 7900GS in NFS:C is very close to the 7600GT...

You should really show him some newer games like COH and NFS:C... those games are extremely shader intensive.

Here is ss of NFSC http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7323/needforspeedcarbonyb6.th.png (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=needforspeedcarbonyb6.png)
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/103/nfscfpsuc4.th.png (http://img118.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nfscfpsuc4.png)
that is CPU at 2.6ghz and GPU at 500mhz and vram at 690mhz on my EVGA 7900GS KO

[p_o_s_pc]

could someone that has a HD2900XT tell me how long it is in inches?

[tkpenalty]

Here is ss of NFSC http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7323/needforspeedcarbonyb6.th.png (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=needforspeedcarbonyb6.png)
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/103/nfscfpsuc4.th.png (http://img118.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nfscfpsuc4.png)
that is CPU at 2.6ghz and GPU at 500mhz and vram at 690mhz on my EVGA 7900GS KO

Show us a canyon race, choose knife's edge, vs some players and go in front of them, THEN take a screenshot at 1280x1024. That will show you what I mean... Settings:

1280x1024
4xAA
Antiso
World Detail High
Shader Detail High
Car Detail High
Reflection upate High
Rain effect High
Vsync Off
Motion Blur off

Yeah try those. From what I can see from those pics... the textures seem very washed out.

[p_o_s_pc]

don't own the game demo or i would but i don't think that is bad that is without pushing my GPU or vram and my CPU isn't being pushed to the limit i still can get about 350mhz higher on CPU and about 120 on the system RAM on the GPU i know i can go about 35 higher with the temp it is in here and the vram can go higher still by about 60mhz (30mhz)

[p_o_s_pc]

Here are the settings
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u88/p_o_s_pc/NFSCsettings.jpg
Here are the FPS
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u88/p_o_s_pc/needforspeedcarbonFPS.jpg
damn photobucket resizing.BTW the clock speed on CPU is 24mhz higher.

[Wile E]

could someone that has a HD2900XT tell me how long it is in inches?Approx 9.5" It's just barely shorter than an ATX mobo.

[p_o_s_pc]

Thanks my mobo is 9.5in and i can fit a bigger one in the case and my harddrive isn't in the way so i will be able to fit it. I will worry about a video card after i get cooling taken care of.

[Wile E]

Thanks my mobo is 9.5in and i can fit a bigger one in the case and my harddrive isn't in the way so i will be able to fit it. I will worry about a video card after i get cooling taken care of.Yeah, even if there was a hard drive cage in the way, it's not a problem, because the power connectors are on top of the card, facing the side panel, not on the back, facing the drive bays, like the older cards.

[p_o_s_pc]

BTW i wanted an ATI card but at the time after my x1950pro died there was no ATI card in stock that i wanted or was as fast as my 7900gs when overclocked and i didn't want to wait.So if the 2900XT is 9.5in than it is about the same as the x1950pro i had. How much power does a 2900xt need?

[p_o_s_pc]

Yeah, even if there was a hard drive cage in the way, it's not a problem, because the power connectors are on top of the card, facing the side panel, not on the back, facing the drive bays, like the older cards.

They were smart about that.That is a good idea the cards are getting longer so they were going to have to do something so they can fit in a mid tower.

[Wile E]

BTW i wanted an ATI card but at the time after my x1950pro died there was no ATI card in stock that i wanted or was as fast as my 7900gs when overclocked and i didn't want to wait.So if the 2900XT is 9.5in than it is about the same as the x1950pro i had. How much power does a 2900xt need?I couldn't tell you for sure how much power it consumes, but my Corsair HX620 psu handles my system without problems. The fan never speeds up to audible levels under load, so it's still running pretty cool.

How many amps does your psu do on the 12v?

[p_o_s_pc]

12v1@20a, 12v2@18a

[Wile E]

12v1@20a, 12v2@18aThat may be cutting it close.

[p_o_s_pc]

i want to get a new PSU maybe i will have to put off a video card longer till i get a new higher power PSU.

[mandelore]

that IScutting it close, maybe too close.

I had 35A on my 12v rail, and dont think thats enuff for overclocking it taking the rest of my rig into consideration. I purchased a months use on that ppower supply calculator website and it showed i needed at least 38A on my 12V rail, and that was with a stock 2900xt and my oc'd opty 185 and rest of the stuff in my rig :( so im waiting on a psu upgrade 2day, 52A on 12v rail should sort me out

[Wile E]

When you go to buy a psu, If you can swing it, you can't go wrong with a Corsair HX520 or 620.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+50001459&name=Corsair+Memory%2c+Inc.

The 520 has 40A on the 12v, and the 620 has 50A.

[tkpenalty]

38 amps? Thats pretty decent.

[Wile E]

38 amps? Thats pretty decent.20+18 doesn't equal 38 in a multi rail psu. There are efficiency losses and other things to consider. I'm willing to bet it's closer to 30-32A combined.

[mandelore]

btw, any1 found any alternative method to change the voltages on the 2900xt, in perticular the 1gb version? atitool dont even work fullstop for me. driving me nuts, posted my log a few times and asked wiz but didnt get a reply, which is fair enuff, hes a busy person

just sux being stuck at stock voltages. and im waiting on dangerden to release their full coverage waterblock so ill get it all nice and chilly

[mandelore]

20+18 doesn't equal 38 in a multi rail psu. There are efficiency losses and other things to consider. I'm willing to bet it's closer to 30-32A combined.

was tk not commenting on my post about being quoted 38A as a minimum i needed on my 12v rail?

[Wile E]

was tk not commenting on my post about being quoted 38A as a minimum i needed on my 12v rail?
Ah could be. Didn't even see yours, tbh. lol. Eh, either way, it's good info, so I'll leave it. lol

[mandelore]

well yes, thats a fair point, always good for peeps to know that

[tkpenalty]

Yes as you guys said, you are right. However, PSU mfgr's these days rarely put their continuous output, my PSU has it though, giving 38A Continuous (proper rating). 456 Divided by 12 gives 38, 38 amps, thus my 12v rail supplies 456W.

As I said... Many PSUs aren't really worth buying; they NEVER label the continous amperages only CM and Corsair are the mfgrs that show the Continuous amperages... My PSU could be considered a 700W PSU if you used the max wattage rating instead.

Anyway off with the rant.

336W on the 12v Rail is sorta low, however a normal system with a C2D/Athlon X2, two optical drives and one hdd and a X1950GT/X1950PRO, will only consume 300W at load, and thats COUNTING the other rails too. I wouldnt really worry about it THAT much. To tell if the sticker is "lying" about it, all you need to do is divide the wattage for the 12v rail by 12, then you will find the actual wattage...

[Wile E]

Yes as you guys said, you are right. However, PSU mfgr's these days rarely put their continuous output, my PSU has it though, giving 38A Continuous (proper rating). 456 Divided by 12 gives 38, 38 amps, thus my 12v rail supplies 456W.

As I said... Many PSUs aren't really worth buying; they NEVER label the continous amperages only CM and Corsair are the mfgrs that show the Continuous amperages... My PSU could be considered a 700W PSU if you used the max wattage rating instead.Seasonic and PCP&C also do continuous ratings, iirc.

[tkpenalty]

Yeah I dont like mfgrs that dont show it... its VERY dishonest. But PSUs like my iGreen are selling badly because of the amperage rating... people THINK its weak. Well most PSU's i've seen with a 700W Label (*Cough Cough*) are weaker... Thermaltake is an exception though.

Antec NEO HE 430W can run 2 X1950PROs in Crossfire btw guys...

[imperialreign]

xFire typically requires what kinda power, BTW?
part of the reason I opted for a Hiper 580W - just to have enough overhead for further upgrades

Oh, I did have a coupla questions per the X1950 PRO's

1. Curious . . . is it possible to flash the GPU BIOS to that of a different PRO model? Possibly one where the BIOS does support hardware monitoring?

2. As best I can understand, there have been various cooling issues with different X1950 models, correct? So, would y'all mind telling me how effective the cooling setup appears to be on mine (specifically, is there anything that I should be aware of that I might not have noticed?):

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb147/prophiseer/X1950_front_back.jpg

Unless I'm mistaken, the copper sinks are more effective than aluminum (albeit heavier), correct? I also noticed, compared to various other pics I've seen of other models, the fan seems to be closer to the GPU, instead of at the tail of the card - better, right?

Biggest reason I ask, is that (as I've redundantly stated) I have no hardware monitoring for the card, and just trying to gauge how it + the whole system is running. SpeedFan only reported an average ambient temp increase of 2-3C since installing the card (ambient within the case temps to run 39-43C). I get the feeling that this card doesn't get too toasty, but still not sure.

Although, I know that the stock cooler setups tend to be sub-par, if I ever attempted to OC this particular model, the stock cooler would be rather inadequate, per any amount of OCing, right?

[insider]

That's the first time I've seen a Built by ATI X1950 Pro card based on the newer PCB design, the board there seems to use better caps (and more of them) than the cheap Sapphire X1950GT/Pro cards based on the newer PCB design. All 4 core caps for the GPU are solid caps compared with only 2/4 for my Sapphire card etc.

IMO that card could potentially overclock like hell after beefing up the cooling plus a volt mod, my 1950GT card does 708Mhz max on core with my current aircooling, with that BB-ATI card I reckon it's got even more potential!

[imperialreign]

yeah, I did notice that the layout of the components looks entirelly different than various other models I've seen pics of. Plus, unlike most other models I've seen, the fan is nearly ontop of the GPU, instead of being placed near the tail of the card. Both front and back of the card, there's some kind of contact pad between the coolers and the chips, diodes and otherwise, and it's a full contact, too. Honestly, I thought the stock spec of 575/693 to be rather conservative - especially when compared to the clocks of other models.

But, funny as it is, from what research I've done on this card, even though the model I have came in an ATI Radeon X1950 PRO box, and the vendor ID listed in the GPU BIOS is for ATI - the box is printed "Distributed by VisionTek", "A VisionTek product . . ." and "visit www.visiontek.com/ATI for current warranty statements and conditions" instead of directing me straight to ATI. Plus, I've noticed that the VisionTek X1950 PRO XGE looks exactly like my ATI build, but with a different sticker on the cooler and the fan (I did also see a couple of sites that pictured the VisionTek XGE with the same stickers as mine), and comparing specs between the two cards (via ATI.com and VisionTek.com) they're both exactly the same.

So . . . It's got me wondering . . . is this an ATI, or a VisionTek? Or is it a built by ATI for VisionTek to be distributed by VisionTek for ATI? :confused: :confused:

Anyhow . . . according to RaBit, there's a hex address for at least one LM63 on the card, I haven't pulled the cooler off the GPU to verify that, but I'm wondering if external hardware monitoring for the card is switched off in the BIOS. Not really sure, though.

[insider]

You can try flashing the following bios (backup your current bios first!) attached below, it's from a Sapphire X1950 Pro 256MB card based on the newer revision PCB.

Note you do this at your own risk, make sure you know how to blind flash the card back to default bios should anything go wrong!

ATI don't manufacture the cards themselves, the ATI branded cards are usually manufactured by the likes of Sapphire/VisionTek etc.

[Widjaja]

P O S
Would have tried to get him to buy it but your'e in the US.
He is a money waster, he just bought a Mitsi FTO version R which he had to spend another $880 to service and remap.
Suppose it goes hard for a tiptronic N/A.:rolleyes:

He should have bought a 200SX like me. . . .:rockout:

Tkpenalty
Anyway he's the one who had Carbon in the first place.

Damn it got blurry!
Had sort of this doubled up effect to it.

It was worse with most wanted.
He won't even play the game and says it's crap and buggy and is correct on the latter.

Al though I'm having a stuttering issue with NFSMW on my rig at the moment with all settings at max.

I'm not too sure if it's the card or the CPU at the moment.
Just fixed a temp problem with it as the idiot who sold me the CPU and H/S had placed the fan around the wrong way so the temps were getting to the mid 50's at stock speed!

With the fan around the right way it never goes over 38deg.

He has COH but he won't play it. . . . . .I wonder why?:D

[imperialreign]

thanks, I'll check that out






. . . actually, that's an idea . . .

If I could extract the BIOS from this GPU with ATiFlash, is there anyone here who'd be curious enough to take a look at the file and see what's up with it?

I'm more willing to experiment that route first, if possible.

[p_o_s_pc]

P O S
Would have tried to get him to buy it but your'e in the US.
He is a money waster, he just bought a Mitsi FTO version R which he had to spend another $880 to service and remap.
Suppose it goes hard for a tiptronic N/A.:rolleyes:

He should have bought a 200SX like me. . . .:rockout:

Tkpenalty
Anyway he's the one who had Carbon in the first place.

Damn it got blurry!
Had sort of this doubled up effect to it.

It was worse with most wanted.
He won't even play the game and says it's crap and buggy and is correct on the latter.

Al though I'm having a stuttering issue with NFSMW on my rig at the moment with all settings at max.

I'm not too sure if it's the card or the CPU at the moment.
Just fixed a temp problem with it as the idiot who sold me the CPU and H/S had placed the fan around the wrong way so the temps were getting to the mid 50's at stock speed!

With the fan around the right way it never goes over 38deg.

He has COH but he won't play it. . . . . .I wonder why?:D

Are you talking about NFSC on my rig or your friends?

[p_o_s_pc]

When you go to buy a psu, If you can swing it, you can't go wrong with a Corsair HX520 or 620.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+50001459&name=Corsair+Memory%2c+Inc.

The 520 has 40A on the 12v, and the 620 has 50A.

I was looking at this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817233002
4 12v@18a= 72a

[Widjaja]

On my friends

His rig:-
Pentuim D 945 3.4Ghz
2Gig dual channel 667mhz Kingston I think
7600GT

[p_o_s_pc]

I think mine looks good
my rig
AMD Athlon 64 x2 @2.6ghz
1gig dual channel DDR2 800@9xx@4-4-4-5
7900GS
I wonder how many more FPS i would get if i added another gig.

[tkpenalty]

On my friends

His rig:-
Pentuim D 945 3.4Ghz
2Gig dual channel 667mhz Kingston I think
7600GT

Sell CPU and GPU, Pentium D is more expensive than a E2140 fyi. The 7600GT however, is one of the factors. It may be the drivers though, send us some scrennies.

[tkpenalty]

Back on topic... seems like new drivers to more harm than good for the X1950PRO, except it has stopped the random crashes in NFS:C from occuring.

[insider]

Yep typical ATI, they seem to be deliberately decreasing the performance of the last generation of cards over time with every driver, to make the newer POS cards look better?

Or maybe this is an unattended side effect of trying to squeeze every inch of performance out of the dire X2600XT and the X2900XT cards.

Either way they ain't gonna sell much new hardware until R700 is out, it'll not only have to be significantly better than the X1900/X1950 series but also the new nVidia cards.

[Darknova]

Back on topic... seems like new drivers to more harm than good for the X1950PRO, except it has stopped the random crashes in NFS:C from occuring.


I put the 7.7 drivers on and saw a noticeable decrease in performance on my 1950XT from 6.12. So i tried the 7.6 drivers and performance now is awesome :cool:

[imperialreign]

I noticed a hit with the 7.7, too, mostly in Q4, and a decrease in visual quality with Doom3 (not like I care much during the middle of a fragfest, ha!).

Just been too lazy to throw 7.6 back on . . .

[Widjaja]

Ahh yes the crashes in NFSC
Do they happen when selecting cars and loading up a race?

Those are my trouble spots on the game.

Happens with my mates rig with a 7600GT

What's better stutters in gameplay or stopping the crashes?
I'd choose the random crashes.

Tkpenalty:-
I'm not going to tell him that!
I will hear no end of his bragging.

Right now his bragging point is how much HDD space he has and how much he has used.

x3 320GB HDD

He's used over half of that with videos and music.
Most of them are doubles!

But I'll keep that in mind just incase I decide to tell him.

Other banter:-
Can't believe my bro had to OC his C2D E660 2.4Ghz to 2.9Ghz to keep up with his 8800GTX on vista ultimate.

Gaming is pretty smooth for him now
He tends to play FSX alot.
Why? there are no guns and you fly through the bulidings!
LOL

[tkpenalty]

lol.............. 320x3? Thats nothing to brag about, unless he had Raid 1+0....

[tkpenalty]

I noticed a hit with the 7.7, too, mostly in Q4, and a decrease in visual quality with Doom3 (not like I care much during the middle of a fragfest, ha!).

Just been too lazy to throw 7.6 back on . . .

Yeah... the bump mapping looks like crap in NFS:C after 7.7...

[p_o_s_pc]

I want to go C2D and ATI HD 2900xt

[Darknova]

Yeah... the bump mapping looks like crap in NFS:C after 7.7...

I think they were trying so hard to increase performance in DX10 that they inadvertantly decreased performance on all their DX9 cards.

Anyone who said they did it purposely just remember, they aren't nVidia ;)

[p_o_s_pc]

I put on the 1xx force ware and my Aqua mark score went down 300 points that is even after running it many times and overclocking.

[tkpenalty]

haha.... this is so offtopic :roll:

Anyway went back to 7.6 Drivers... no more Floating point HDR artifacts (whole screen goes brightish). w00t. Game crashes occured rarely again... turning off the music is the remedy. I've had no luck overclocking my X1950PRO :(

[Widjaja]

lol.............. 320x3? Thats nothing to brag about, unless he had Raid 1+0....

He doesn't even know what RAID is or the benefits of it.:)

Anyway anyone here play need for speed most wanted still?
I've been playing it and have noticed with 'over bright' (HDR) setting on, some of the the green highway signs flicker a bright yellowish colour when driving towards them.
When you get close enough to them it disappears.

Does it with all drivers I've used 7.1-7.6.

Stuttering has gone down with all settings high but not as bad.:wtf:
Especially in areas with alot of trees and shadows, it starts to chug and I think my frames drop to around 45 in those areas with res at 1024 X 768.
Otherwise frames fluctuate from 55-70 fps but mainly at 60.
It's noticable when the frames drop!

[Widjaja]

Question for anyone who plays racedriver 3

If I lock the frames should they always stay at those frames rates regardless of how many cars appear in the replays?

Everytime there are many cars coming into view the frames start dropping even though I have locked them at 60fps.

And it's pretty noticable.

[Darknova]

I've been playing Most Wanted, and with the 7.7 drivers the performance was pitiful, my 7600GT performed better.

Haven't tried it out with the 7.6 drivers though. Will let you know when I do.

[Autiem Sel]

Got my HIS x1950 agp 512mb card in January... suffered months of random crashes thinking other components were at fault, until I found out that the card was way overclocked. It's a v1 card, the bios clocks are 622/743, using atitraytools it runs stably at 608/783 (raised the mem clock towards the v2 setting of 770 and beyond with no bad effects). Having no problems with the 7.7 drivers too :)

Noticed unchecking 'Z Mask Enable' dropped points in the att benchmark, so I keep it enabled, contrary to the advice at tweakguides.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x183/snoutie/macard.jpg

[tkpenalty]

Dont use the ATT benchmark... use 3D Mark 05 or 6. There's a lot of dust from what i can see inside the plastic shroud. Best if you use the 7.6 Drivers.

I've been playing Most Wanted, and with the 7.7 drivers the performance was pitiful, my 7600GT performed better.

Haven't tried it out with the 7.6 drivers though. Will let you know when I do.

Yeah 7.7 Drivers SUCK. Dont know what amd did but they are certainly more stable. 7.6 Driver's btw are the fastest for the X1950 series.

[imperialreign]

There's a lot of dust from what i can see inside the plastic shroud.


dust bunnies - IN UR PC SOKIN UP TEH COLD!!!11!!

[Darknova]

I'll get some pics up for you guys tomorrow or sunday once all my new stuff has arrived :D

[Widjaja]

I've been playing Most Wanted, and with the 7.7 drivers the performance was pitiful, my 7600GT performed better.

Haven't tried it out with the 7.6 drivers though. Will let you know when I do.

How Ironic my 7600GS played it better than my X1950pro and I'm using 7.6 drivers at the moment.

I'll be doing some tests of my own.
I'm going to be trying out my brothers old Sapphire X800pro and see how NFSMW plays.
Although I don't thinkyou can use motion blur with X800pros being shader v2.0.

Wierd BIOS overclocking a GPU.

Never heard of that.

[tkpenalty]

NFS:MW uses INT HRD and Motion blur has nothing to do with Pixel shader standards.

[mitsirfishi]

ive noticed sinse i am running vista i know errrr gota it from a torrent and activated and that and compaired to my stripped out version of xp it isnt killing my fps hardy in testdrive unlimited which at 1440x900 and 2AA and high settings 45 fps general

[Autiem Sel]

Cheers for the tips, ahll be on the tweak tonight and let yous know how I get on.

[Autiem Sel]

Using 3Dmark06 I got identical scores for the 7.6 and 7.7 drivers...

7.6 : score 4160, sm2 1805, hdr 2126, cpu 890
7.7 : score 4160, sm2 1800, hdr 2130, cpu 890

Both cpu tests ran at less than 1fps and its score is relatively low, is my P4 3ghz crippling the performance of my card?

[TonyStark]

Probably.

I'd say bump the CPU to 3.2GHz, then test 3DM06, then bump it up to 3.4GHz and test again. Check if the SM2.0 and SM3.0 scores increase. If they do, then there was a CPU bottleneck @ 3.0GHz.

Make sure you have good cooling. Those netburst cores get pretty hot.

[imperialreign]

Both cpu tests ran at less than 1fps and its score is relatively low, is my P4 3ghz crippling the performance of my card?

yeah, I'd have to say so - I'm in the same boat with you on that, my Pentium4 HT 3.06GHz (524 Prescott) really hampers my scores with 3DM06, too, and I can't go any faster with it throught the BIOS (I'm thinkin I'm gonna try Clockgen soon) - that, and my mobo tops out at 233MHz on the mem clocks :mad:, even though the DDR I have supports much faster - oh, well, I needed the new PC - now I just got to save for a new mobo/CPU.

[p_o_s_pc]

I get about 1000 points higher when i overclock my CPU does that mean it is a bottle neck?

[TonyStark]

I get about 1000 points higher when i overclock my CPU does that mean it is a bottle neck?


If overclocking your CPU increases the SM2.0 score and SM3.0 score in 3DM06 -- which are based on the frame rates of the Graphics Tests -- then yes, there was a bottleneck before overclocking.

Otherwise, no, there was no CPU bottleneck despite the overall score going up.

[imperialreign]

You can try flashing the following bios (backup your current bios first!) attached below, it's from a Sapphire X1950 Pro 256MB card based on the newer revision PCB.

Note you do this at your own risk, make sure you know how to blind flash the card back to default bios should anything go wrong!

ATI don't manufacture the cards themselves, the ATI branded cards are usually manufactured by the likes of Sapphire/VisionTek etc.

Alright . . . I went and flashed my GPU BIOS - had to use the force parameter, as ATiFlash threw an error over the vendor ID. Anyhow - my X1950 PRO will run on your Sapphire BIOS, and stable at those clock speeds . . . but, I still had no hardware monitoring, even after re-installing ATiTool, RivaTuner and ATi Tray Tools. Overdrive was also not supported in CCC - even though RaBit reported back that OD was enabled. Like I mentioned, my bbATI ran stable with the SAP BIOS, but without the hardware monitoring, I just went and flashed the stock BIOS back .

Man . . . this has really got me stumped!

[tkpenalty]

Very odd... Dont know why it wouldnt have hardware monitoring. Anyway, guys use the 7.8 Drivers, they improve on 7.6 Drivers a lot.

[Autiem Sel]

Thanks Tony, oc'd my cpu and got better results :

3DMark Score 4483 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 1912 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 2235 Marks
CPU Score 1016 Marks

So it seems there was cpu bottlenecking as the SM scores went up by 100.
Ranked #2 in the similar system comparison so I'm very happy with the results.

I'll try the 7.8 drivers and see if the scores improve. (And I'll scrub my shroud til it sparkles)

[binormalkilla]

Well I sold the X1950 Pros and got an HIS 2900XT 1Gb. It's NICE! :D
3dmark with my E6600 at 3 GHz, stock clocks on the card.
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1935/2900xt773ghzbx0.jpg

[imperialreign]

Very odd... Dont know why it wouldnt have hardware monitoring. Anyway, guys use the 7.8 Drivers, they improve on 7.6 Drivers a lot.

yeah, I don't understand why I wouldn't have hardware monitoring after flashing an enabled BIOS :wtf: Anyhow, I used RaBit to change the fan/temp table to something a little more . . . to my liking, re-saved my bios and reflashed the card with that. According to RaBit, it took . . . but I haven't been able to push the card hard enough to hear the changes yet.

Oh, and I tried! Lord I tried! Out of boredom, I went ahead an OC the card using ATiTool - stock was 575/688; squeezed out a stable 601/749. By 3M06 scores at default settings, I went from a score of 3370 to 3459. Then, I let 3M06 run all of it's tests on repeat for like 6 hours this morning while I was asleep - still running when I woke up. No visual anomalies, etc. SpeedFan temps are still where they were before, ambient only went up about 2C. Still, though, I'm sure that card is getting hot (still wish I knew exactly how hot!), but I defi don't hear the fan. I don't think I'll try pushing any more out of it without monitoring, though.

[tkpenalty]

I better make a HD2900XT Siggy.... waait guys its coming!!

[Darknova]

Very odd... Dont know why it wouldnt have hardware monitoring. Anyway, guys use the 7.8 Drivers, they improve on 7.6 Drivers a lot.

7.8? I can't find 7.8 on the AMD site....still lists 7.7 as the latest.

EDIT: Oops, just noticed the New post :P

[tkpenalty]

http://www.overclockersclub.com/vimages/sapphire1950pro/3.jpg

See that Aluminium heatsink guys? The X1950PROs now have THAT + the X1950GT Stock cooler (better than X1950PRO stock cooler). So yeah go for sapphire if you have to go cheap. It will simplify installation by a lot as well.

[erocker]

Wierd, no one sells my x1950 pro anymore? All I can find is the lower clock non-vivo version. What gives with that?

[imperialreign]

See that Aluminium heatsink guys? The X1950PROs now have THAT + the X1950GT Stock cooler (better than X1950PRO stock cooler). So yeah go for sapphire if you have to go cheap. It will simplify installation by a lot as well.


more than likely I'll pick one up after I upgrade to a crossfire capable mobo.

[tkpenalty]

Signatures ready guys.... Tried to keep it simple; how AMD likes it.

I've cleaned the front page up and I'll soon have more articles up.

[imperialreign]

that sig looks decent, man


doubling back, here . . .


more than likely I'll pick one up after I upgrade to a crossfire capable mobo.


opinions!! => would it be a better idea to upgrade my mobo first, possibly to something I "MIGHT" be able to OC this <insert explative here> Penitum4 with until I can afford a new proc - or would it be best to sit on it until I can do both the proc and mobo at the same time?

[p_o_s_pc]

the sig looks good but what about the x1950 owners you should make one with the 1950 and the hd2000.I know you have a 1950 already but maybe a new one.

[tkpenalty]

Thing is forget about crossfire for anything other than the HD2900XT. Its not economical to crossfire since its cheaper to have a single card that performs faster. Thats unless you already have something like an X1950PRO. Oh yeah check the first page P O S PC. If you have the card, you can automaticlaly use the siggy.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/image.php?u=30795&type=sigpic&dateline=1185789612
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/XTXcopy-1.jpg < Can someone redo this for me?
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/XTcopy-1.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/PROcopy-1.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/PROSAPPHIREcopy-1.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/PowercolorPROcopy-1.jpg

Oh yeah and the popular one

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/ICEQIIIcopy-1.jpg

GRAB THE SIGGY's WHILE THEY ARE VALID. Try to link it.

[imperialreign]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/GunbladePlatinum/XTXcopy-1.jpg< Can someone redo this for me?


I might, if no one's taken up with it by the end of the week - I won't have the spare time until the weekend . . . I was thinkin about doin one based off of my card design for personal use, seeing as how I found a good amount of publicity shots of this card (although of a Diamond Media -they look exactly the same), so . . .

Thing is forget about crossfire for anything other than the HD2900XT


the 2900s perform that much better, huh? <edit: that was a stoopid question, huh?!!> Is it possible to xfire a 1950 with a 2900, or no go on that? Reason being, if I do up- the mobo, I was thinking of tacking on a SAP 1950 in the near future (prob before the end of the year), but if she'll work with a 2900 instead . . .

. . . then later scrap the 1950 I currently have for another 2x00 card.



edit: had time while downloading files to get that sig re-done, made the ATi logo a little more legible (unless . . . did you want it transparent?). I've attached it, let me know if it's alright.

[tkpenalty]

Looks good, but kill that font though... Arial = GAY. Verdana please.

[Wile E]

Looks good, but kill that font though... Arial = GAY. Verdana please.I like Arial.

[imperialreign]

verdana:












**Bored as crap right now . . . messin with the clocks on the 1950 - 600/749 started gettin squirelly - maybe to do with the 7.8b drivers. Seems to be runnin stable at 600/722 AON.

Curious - those with the newer design cards, where did ATi slap the LM63 on the board? Was thinking of popping the fansink off to look for it - nother question, the contacts on the sinks that sit between the components and the cooler, what's that made out of? Would one need to apply thermal before installing the cooler again? I'm thinkin of taking a closer look at various things on the card this weekend (need some spare time projects - like finally getting around to flashing the mobo BIOS wi -

:mad: 600/722 no-go . . . and at 600/749 it ran stable in 3DM06 for 6 hrs. :wtf:

anyone else having issues running OC with 7.8b?

[Darknova]

http://img.techpowerup.org/070802/02-08-07_2039.jpg
http://img.techpowerup.org/070802/02-08-07_2038.jpg

Piccies :D